Danhostel Ribe in Denmark is working with its neighbours and the surrounding community on a proposed solar energy project, ‘RIBE SOL’. If the project is approved by parliament, it will significantly reduce their CO2 emissions and be much more cost-effective in the long term, helping their town become greener.

The hostel is already certified with the Green Key label and is working on the ‘RIBE SOL’ project with its neighbour, Rio (Ribe Jernindustri), which is a huge factory that produces radiators. Both the hostel and Rio have land in the Wadden Sea National Park nearby and it’s great to see a manufacturing company and a hostel working together to help make the town greener.

Danhostel Ribe, RIO (Ribe Jernindustri) and part of the Wadden Sea National Park seen from top of the Cathedral

Recently a small delegation went to the Danish parliament to have a meeting with its Energy Committee about the proposed project. The meeting had been suggested by one of the 2 local members of parliament, who fully support the project.

The ‘RIBE SOL’ project has received some great publicity so far to help the cause. Michael Boel, the Director of Rio, was interviewed by the town’s biggest local radio station following the meeting and the project was also mentioned on other radio stations too.

Here are some facts about the project: 

• Size: 28000 m2 of the roof on Rio 
• 10000 m2 solar panels (5000 m2 solar collectors for heating and 5000 m2 solar cells for electricity) 
• Investment: 30.000.000 d.kr. (3.529.478,22 £) 

If the project does go ahead, it will produce 55% of the heat and 20% of the electricity for Rio and Danhostel Ribe, reducing their CO2 emissions by 870 tonnes every year. This is the equivalent of 360 cars (Ford Ka) driving 20,000 km a year or a car going around the earth 180 times!

Aalborg University in Esbjerg is also involved in the project. Their aim is to create a big research programme to collect more information on solar energy, which will in turn help the development of solar technology. This is important research, which will help gain further knowledge on the amount of PV solar cells used for bigger industries.

‘RIBE SOL’ is a unique project, which would significantly help the development of green energy. If you have any questions about it, please contact the Danhostel Ribe Hostel Manager, Jens Philipsen at ribe@danhostel.dk.

“Viking Music, Viking warriors, Viking children, etc. Ribe VikingeCenter, Denmark”

has been seen 3250 times the first year. Gudrun Victoria Gotved is the Viking Woman playing the flutes

The comments to this video have been very different:

• Danish vikings!
• shes hot
• Yak! Does she really put the flutes in her mouth after having them in her nose???
• Go Gudrun:)
• What the fuck?
• what place is this? Where people don’t want to live in the modern world and decide to live as our forefathers instead??

Though we have seen this Viking woman play nose flutes we can still be facinated by others doing the same. Take a look of  this Nose Flute Musician in Mumbai

More than 10.000 people have seen one of our YouTube videos the first year.
The second most seen is our breakfast video (in Danish).

We understand people prefer to see a video about Vikings to a video about  Danhostel Ribe’s breakfast. And we also think it was much funnier to film the Vikings than our own breakfast.
But we are sure that those who like our Viking video also will like to taste our breakfast buffet when they stay at the hostel:-)
Here we will show the video in English. Breakfast at Danhostel Ribe

The third, 4th and 5th most seen  of our videos are from the Danish Championship in rock climbing in our sports hall, Ribehallen, 2010

Trio WEJ (Waidtløv, Esbjerg, Jørgensen) - Hans Esbjerg Trio

Hans Esbjerg Trio – From now on called  Trio WEJ (Waidtløv, Esbjerg, Jørgensen) – was jazzing up Danhostel Ribe yesterday. 
Trio WEJ is featuring Hans Esbjerg on piano, Kristian Jørgensen on violin and Claus Waidtløw on clarinet and saxophone.
The hostel filmed the trio’s improvisation over Bach’s Prelude No. 2 in C minor. We enjoyed it. Here you can do the same: VIDEO

The concert was organized by Jazzin’ Ribe (Ribe Jazz Club). Next time you can hear jazz at the hostel will be to Ribe Jazz Festival’s Jazz Brunch.
Ribe Jazz Festival will take place 28th , 29th, 30th and 31 th of July 2011. The festival takes place all around the city. See you in Ribe Jazz Lovers!!!

At the hostel we are aware that we are probably not reducing CO2 emissions by taking part in this action and that we don’t save the earth by turning out the lights for one hour, but we think it is a nice way  to raise awareness about climate change together with people all around the world. In Denmark Earth Hour is arranged by WWF Denmark (World Wildlife Fund )

REFERAT PÅ DANSK:
For 4. år i træk deltager Danhostel Ribe i Earth Hour (Sluk lyset Danmark) arrangeret i Danmark af WWF (Verdensnaturfonden) I år er det d. 26. marts kl. 20.30 til 21.30. Esbjerg by slukker samtidig lyset i Ribe by. På vandrehjemmet serverer vi gratis te, kaffe og hjemmebagte småkager for både lokale og vandrerhjemmets gæster i stearinlysets skær. Teen er vores nye grønne ”Danhostel Ribe te”, netop udviklet af “Carstensens Tehandel” i Aabenraa og kaffen er økologisk Good Origin Coffee (sporbar fra bonde til kop) og kan til daglig trækkes i vores kaffeautomat for en 10’er.
Har man lyst til en snak om Danhostel Ribes miljømærkning ”Green Key” og hvordan vi arbejder med miljøet, så er vi samtidig klar til at fortælle og diskutere, hvordan vi gør vores vandrehjem grønnere hele tiden.
Den forfærdelige atomkraft ulykke i Japan minder os om, at atomkraft ikke er vejen til at løse den globale opvarmning. Andre løsninger må bruges.
Vi er klar over at denne aktion med at slukke lyset en time og tænde stearinlysene i stedet formodentlig ikke reducerer CO² udledningerne, men vi synes det er en god måde at minde hinanden om at vi alle bør arbejde videre med dette problem
På www.facebook.com/earthhourdk kan du se hvilke kommuner og firmaer, der deltager i Earth Hour i Danmark 2011. Vi har naturligvis også omtalt eventen på Danhostel Ribes facebook

Cristmas Card from Denmark

A new Christmas card from Danhostel Ribe  as a tribute to our beautiful town and as one of the last celebrations of Ribe’s 1300 year anniversary this year.
It’s really been a fantastic year and we have had many happy guests visiting us.

The picture is from the poetic footpath over Ribe River from the hostel to Ribe old town. The bench is just one of Ribe’s many benches where the Ribe citizens sit and enjoy our beautiful town while they discuss important matters when the weather is a little warmer.
The photographer is Gudrun Rishede, who has also made the hostel’s postcards Vadehavskort and all the Ribe and Wadden Sea National Park photos that you can enjoy at the hostel.

The Christmas card can be seen/bought at Danhostel Ribe from now.

Julekort fra Danmarks ældste by. Resume på dansk:

Danhostel Ribes julekort viser gangstien over Ribe å fra vandrehjemmet til den gamle by og én af Ribes mange bænke, hvor ripenserne nyder den smukke by og diskuterer stort og småt, når vejret er lidt varmere. Postkortet er fotograferet af Gudrun Rishede, som også har fotograferet vores andre postkort ”Vadehavskort” og alle de mange fotos fra Ribe og Nationalpark Vadehavet, der har sørget for vandrehjemmets helt en egen stemning.

Julekortene kan ses/købes på Danhostel Ribe fra nu af.

Danhostel Ribe's Winter View

Our hostel, Danhostel Ribe, has been using Facebook (-and this hostel blog) for more than a year now, but we still feel like newcomers. We are still learning – we are still experimenting – how can we engage our customers and potential guests in the best way through social media?

We are very thankful for so many facebook friends wanting to follow us – more than twice as many as any other Danish hostel. Therefore we have decided to thank our facebook friends by giving them an accommodation offer: ½ price accommodation  until 19^th December. We can’t wait to see how many will accept this offer – and will we have newcomers?

We know we can offer them some wonderful days in Denmark’s oldest town. Our nice hostel Christmas elves are welcoming our guests and Ribe is so beautiful when the old town is decorated for Christmas.

We hope this will make us wiser. Because we still don’t know if our facebook friends want news from the hostel, from the town, from green travelling  or from a little of all? Do they want offers, photos or a little of all?

Danhostel Ribe Facebook

Take a look on our Facebook. How do you think we use the social media to have just as many friends as the big hotels

The first animation festival in Denmark is made as a tribute to animation film and to two of the grand old men within animation film: Børge Ring (89) and Kaj Pindal (83). Both of them born in Denmark and both of them turning up in Ribe not only to be celebrated but also to inspire other film animators coming to Ribe to show off their creations, get inspired and create networks.
Kaj Pindal and Børge Ring are fellow animators and lifelong friends. Oscar winner Børge Ring writes to Kaj Pindal´s 80th birthday “We are buddies and we are soul brothers”.
The festival is for everyone. Young and old will have the possibility to see both some rare and some famous animation films and meet the animators.

Ribe Animation Festival 2010 from Amir Avni on Vimeo.

Børge Ring was nominated to an Oscar in 1978 and was rewarded with an Oscar in 1986 for his animation short film “Anna & Bella”. He has also been involved in the early Asterix films as well as ‘The Pink Panther’ cartoons, and the Danish Viking ‘Valhalla’ cartoons
For Børge Ring, who has lived and worked in Holland a big part of his life, it will be a return to his birth town, since he was born in our street in Ribe, 50 meters from Danhostel Ribe, 89 years ago.
Here you can see Børge Ring´s Oscar winner: Anna & Bella

Kaj Pindal has lived in Canada for many years. He is also an award-winning animator.
He worked together with Børge Ring on – among others - the movies Karate Kids (dangers of AIDS) and Goldtooth (drug abuse). Animation films that succeed in telling about serious problems in an easy understandable way. Goldtooth won the Unicef Meena Prize 1996.

You can meet the 82-year old Kaj Pindal Friday the 12th November from 3 pm to 6 pm at the hostel. He will be showing selected films and tell about his life with animated cartoons. Among others he will show parts of his latest film series “Peep and the Big Wide World” for which he received an EMMY in 2005 as the best animation Children’s Tv Programme in the USA.
Friday evening animators from everywhere will meet at the hostel to present their films and enjoy networking.
You are also invited to watch examples of the latest films and meet some of the new talented animators behind them.
This was only a little part of the program. Other parts will take place at Brorsonsminde, Bispegade school, the Viking Museum, Taarnborg and other places in Ribe. See the entire program here: Animation Festival
The Animation Festival is at the same time part of Ribe’s 1300 Year Anniversary Celebrations

Danhostel Ribe is Eco-labeled with Green Key and mentioned among Best Green Hotels

Danhostel Ribe congratulates The Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers for having been named the greenest hotel in the world by the travel and tourist organization Skaal International.

The more green accommodation we get in Denmark the better. And the more focus we get on sustainable accommodation the better. At Danhostel Ribe we can learn from Crowne Plaza –  can they also learn from us? Maybe there are things we just should do different because Crowne Plaza is a hotel and Danhostel Ribe a hostel?

 But if you as a tourist would prefer to:

• get sustainable accommodation in Denmark’s oldest and best preserved town in the middle of the Wadden Sea National Park instead of in the middle of the busy city Copenhagen
• get cheap green accommodation because you travel on a low budget
• stay at a environmentally friendly hostel instead of a hotel
• get accommodation on the West Coast instead of the east coast of Denmark

Well, then you have the possibility to stay at Danhostel Ribe. You can read all Danhostel Ribe’s environmental policy on this link: Environmental policy at Danhostel Ribe.  Danhostel Ribe is Eco-labeled with Green Key and mentioned among Best Green Hotels. Danhostel Ribe cooperates with INNOTOUR  for education, research and business development in tourism. It is dedicated to innovation.

HRH Prince Joachim inaugurates the Wadden Sea National Park  Friday 16th October 2010

AND if you come to Ribe this Friday, you can participate in the inauguration of the Wadden Sea National Park just outside the hostel at 12 o’clock. The Wadden Sea National Park is Denmark’s third, biggest and wettest national park. HRH Prince Joachim will inaugurate the National Park and also Karen Ellemann, the Danish minister of Environment will be there. From 10.30am to 2.30pm it´s possible to join different activities and study local wadden sea products, enjoy Rod Sinclair quintet play the new National Park Song, watch the shepherd and his dog work, listen to the local stories about storm surges and pirates - and much more. Welcome.

Eco-labeled Danhostel Ribe, National Park, and Ribe Old town

The official opening will take place on the meadow – Hovedengen – outside the hostel. Hovedengen is part of the national park, and Ribe is situated in the middle of this big new national park, that in Denmark goes from the German border to Ho Bay. All ready now we know it will be a big celebration.

Of course this means now that Danhostel Ribe can boast of this fantastic situation right at the very heart of the national park – and with a panoramic view of both the national park and Denmark’s oldest and best preserved town: Ribe.
And at the same time we are the only ecolabeled accommodation you can get in Ribe and its surroundings, since we have received the Green Key and furthermore been mentioned in Environmentally Friendly Hotel´s list of “Best Green Hotels”.

Another day I will tell you the story of how Hovedengen got it’s strange name “Meadow of the Heads”